Document feeding apparatus



Jan. 25, 1966 A. J. B. BADENOCH 3,231,265

DOCUMENT FEEDING APPARATUS Filed March 1'7, 1964 PNEUMAUC 2, VALVE AlR I I i, r PRESSURE -L SOURCE 20 k ATTomNEYS United States Patent 3,231,265 DOCUMENT FEEDENG APPARATUS Alexander John Barnett Badenoch, Kenley, England, as-

signor to international Qoruputers and Tabulators Limited Filed Mar. 17, N64, Ser. No. 352,481 Claims priority, application Great Britain, Mar. 27, 1963, 12,.tlb7/63 Qlaims. ((ll. 27l2) This invention relates to document feeding apparatus.

Many devices have been proposed for feeding discrete documents such as cheques, record cards, and the like. One such device is a friction roller, which very often consists of a metal roller with a rubber surface, or insert, to provide an area with a relatively high coefficient of friction for engagement with the document. Document feeding apparatus using a friction roller, or rollers, is usually relatively simple in construction and can be used at quite high rates of feed. However, such apparatus has not been readily adaptable to provide selectively controlled feeding of documents, that is, to the feeding of individual documents on demand as opposed to the feeding of a succession of documents at regular intervals.

The object of the invention is to provide an improved arrangement for the frictional feeding of documents.

According to the invention a document feeding device includes a feeding roller with a feeding surface positioned adjacent to a document feed path and selectively operable means for causing the feeding surface to assume one or the other of two radial distances from the centre of the roller such that the feeding surface engages, or does not engage, respectively, a document positioned in the feed path.

The invention will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawing, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a schematic sectional view of an arrange ment for feeding cards from a stack, and

FIGURE 2 is a schematic sectional view of an alternative form of feeding roller.

A stack of statistical cards 1 (FIGURE 1) is contained Within a hopper 2%. The bottom card of the stack is supported by a number of steel balls 4 which are free to rotate in holes in a retaining plate 3. Each retaining plate is secured to a support pillar 5 which is mounted on a base plate 6. The hopper 2 is also attached to the base plate by suitable side plates (not shown).

Each support pillar 5 holds a ball race 7, in which are journalled shafts 8 and 9. One end of each of these shafts is secured to a metal feeding roller 1%. A pulley 11 is secured to the shaft 9. A belt (not shown) transfers drive from an electric motor, or other suitable power source, to the pulley 11, so that the shaft 9 and, hence, the feeding roller 1% are driven at a substantially constant speed.

The feeding roller ill is covered by a sleeve 12. The sleeve is made of an elastically deformable material, such as natural rubber, or poly-urethane. .Freferably, the material has a relatively high coefficient of friction. If necessary, the effective frictional force which can be exerted by the outer surface of the sleeve may be increased by roughening or ridging that surface. The sleeve may be retained on the feeding roller frictionally by utilizing a sleeve with an inner diameter slightly less than the outer diameter of the roller 10. Alternatively, the portions of the sleeve near the ends may be attached to the roller by a suitable adhesive.

The roller it) is bored out axially to form ducts l3 and 14 which communicate with a radial duct 15 and also with axial ducts in and 17 in the shafts 8 and 9, respectively. The duct 15 communicates with a circumferential groove 18 in the periphery of the roller it). The duct 16 is connected with a source 21 of air under pressure through a sealing gland 19. The duct 17 is connected to normally open pneumatic valve 22 of conventional construction by a sealing gland 2d. The valve 22 may be closed by energising an operating electromagnet (not shown).

There is a small gap of .01 to .02" between the outer surface of the sleeve 12 and the lower face of the bottom card ll of the stack when the pneumatic valve 22 is open. In this condition, the air under pressure from the source 21 flows through the ducts 16, 13, 15, 14 and 17 and exhausts through the valve 22. Consequently, the air pressure in the groove 18 is substantially equal to atmospheric pressure and the surface of the sleeve 12 is substantially fiat in an axial direction. The roller lib therefore rotates without feeding any cards.

if the valve 22. is closed by application of a current pulse to the valve operating electromagnet, the outflow of air through the duct 17 is prevented and the air pressure within the ducts rapidly rises to that of the source 21. The increase in pressure causes the sleeve to expand in the vicinity of the groove 18 to an extent sufficient to bring the outer surface of this part of the sleeve into contact with the lower surface of the bottom card. The frictional force between the sleeve and the card is sufficient to cause the card to be fed out of the hopper as the roller lll rotates. The duration of the current pulse applied to the electromagnet is sufhcient to assure that the leading edge of the card is fed into the grip of a pair of continuously running feed rolls, (not shown) or other conventional document forwarding devices. The feed rolls then continue the movement of the card to extract it completely from the hopper. The termination of the current pulse allows the valve 22 to open, thereby releasing the air pressure and allowing the sleeve to return to the original position. The roller ill continues to rotate idly until a further current pulse is applied to the control electromaguet.

The mass of that part of the sleeve 12 which moves radially, and the distance through which it moves, are both small. Consequently, the change from non-feeding to feeding condition can be effected rapidly. This feature, together with the fact that the roller is continuously running, permits the roller to be run with a high peripheral speed and makes the device particularly useful for the selective feeding of cards at relatively high rates.

The frictional restraining forces acting on the bottom card should be reduced to a. minimum to allow the card to be accelerated quickly md cleanly by the frictional force applied by the sleeve. This is partly achieved by the low friction support provided by the steel balls, 3, but there remains the frictional force between the lowest and next to lowest cards of the stack. This inter-card friction can be maintained at an acceptable level by keeping the size of the stack fairly small, if necessary by using one of theknown forms of metering hopper, in which a large stack is held in a further hopper and small batches of cards from this hopper are dropped into the hopper 2 as required. Alternatively, the hopper 2 may be mounted at an angle to the vertical so that only a small component of the total weight of the stack is applied to the lowermost cards.

Another embodiment of the invention is shown in FIGURE 2, the same references being used for corre sponding parts in FIGURES 1 and 2.

The bottom card of the stack rests on a number of roller bearings such as 23. Since these can provide a greater area of contact than the steel balls 3, they are particularly suitable when the documents to be fed are is cheques, or paper sheets, which have less rigidity than statistical cards.

In this embodiment, the metal part of the feeding roller is of composite form. And end plate 24 is secured to a shaft 25 which is driven via a pulley (not shown). An electromagnet 26 is held by screws 27 on one face of the plate 24. The winding of the electromagnet is connected to a pair of slip-rings (not shown) on one face of an insulating disc 28. These slip-rings are contacted by brushes 2-9 which are supported on an insulating plate 3%.

A second end plate 31 carries an armature 32 and is slidably mounted on a screw 33. A sleeve 34 or rubber or polyurethane is mounted between tapered faces of the end plates 24 and 31. Application of am energising current pulse to the electromagnet winding, via the brushes 29, causes the armature 32 and the end plate 31 to be attracted to the position shown in FIGURE 2. The sleeve 34 is compressed between the end plates 23 and 31, so that the surface of the sleeve is brought into contact with the bottom card of the stack. The resiliency of the sleeve 34 pushes the end plates apart when the electromagnet 26 is de-energised, so that the surface of the sleeve is no longer in contact with the bottom card of the stack. If necessary, a return spring can be provided to aid the action of the sleeve in separating the end plates.

It will be appreciated that the two embodiments described herein before are merely exemplary of constructions which allow the effective radial distance of the feeding surface to be changed to provide nonfeeding and feeding conditions. Considerable modification of these structures is possible. For example, the ducts 14 and 17 and the pneumatic valve 22 may be dispensed with. Instead the duct 16 is connected to a two-way pneumatic valve which can connect the duct either to the pressure source 21 or to atmospheric pressure (or partial vacuum). The pneumatic pressure need not act directly on the sleeve 12, but may cause movement of a pressure plate which in turn compresses the sleeve, in a manner generally similar to the action of the plate 31 of FIGURE 2.

Only a part of the length of the sleeve is actually brought into contact with the card; consequently, there is no reduction in feeding efficiency if the sleeve is replaced by a relatively narrow ring. Furthermore, if less than one complete rotation of the feeding roller is sufiicient to feed a card from the hopper, the sleeve, or ring, may be incomplete, covering only a segment of the circumference. This complicates the mounting of the sleeve, and requires that the start of the operating pulse should be synchronised with the rotation of the roller but it does enable the duration of the contact of the roller with the card to be determined by the size of the segment rather than by the duration of the operating pulse.

A further modification provides an increase in the frictional area and does not necessitate the expandable part of the roller having a high coefficient of friction. In this modification, an endless belt of material with a feeding surface having a high coefficient of friction passes round the feeding roller and an idler pulley. When the feeding roller is expanded, the belt is forced against the bottom card to feed it from the hopper.

The relative positions of the roller and the hopper may be reversed so that the cards, or other documents, are selectively fed from the top of the stack.

The various embodiments described hereinbefore have all related to the use of the invention in feeding documents selectively from a stack. It will be appreciated that the invention may equally well be used for the selective feeding of documents which are presented one at a time. For example, the feeding roller may be positioned above a flat feed table on to which documents are fed singly by conventional feeding means such as a conveyor belt. The document positioned on the feed table remains there until the feeding roller is operated to feed it off at high speed to a sensing device, for example. Such as arrangement is particularly suitable when the average rate of feeding is moderate and is therefore compatible with the use of conventional devices for supplying documents to the feed table but a very rapid response is required to a control signal indicating that a document is to be fed off the feed table.

What I claimed is:

1. Document feeding apparatus having a feeding roller mounted for rotation about an axis, said feeding roller including first and second parts which are spaced apart and are relatively movable in an axial direction; a selfsupporting sleeve of flexible material mounted between said first and second parts, the outer surface of the sleeve being substantially parallel to an adjacent document feeding path when the first and second parts of the roller are in a first relative position; and selectively operable means for moving the first and second parts of the roller to a second relative positionin which the sleeve is deformed to a position in which it engages with the surface of a document positioned in the feeding path.

2. Document feeding apparatus including a continuously rotatable shaft; a first member secured to the shaft; a second member attached to the first member for rotation therewith but slidable axially relative to the first member; a sleeve of flexible material mounted between the first and second members, the outer surface of the sleeve being normally adjacent to, but of contact with, one face of a stack of documents; and an electromagnet mounted within the sleeve and effective, when energised, to move the second member towards the first member to compress the sleeve to bring a portion of the sleeve into contact with said one face of the document stack.

3. Apparatus for selectively feeding documents including a hopper for holding a stack of documents; a continuously rotating shaft; a feeding roller mounted on said shaft; a flexible frictional feeding element carried by said roller, the outer surface of the feeding element being substantially parallel to the axis of the roller; stack supporting means effective to maintain that document forming one face of the stack closely adjacent to, but spaced from, the surface of the feeding element; and feeding control means responsive to an electrical control signal to cause a temporary deformation of the flexible feeding element sufficient to bring it into engagement with the document forming said one face of the stack, the friction between the feeding element and the document being sufficient to move that document out of the hopper.

4'. Apparatus for selectively feeding documents including a hopper for holding a stack of documents; a continuously rotatable feeding roller; a flexible feeding element carried by the roller; means effective to maintain one face of said stack adjacent to, but spaced from the outer surface of said feeding element; said roller including an air duct communicating with a part of the inside of the feeding element; a source operable to provide air at a pressure greater than atmospheric pressure to said duct; a two-state pneumatic valve, the valve being effective in a normal first state to prevent the source from increasing the air pressure in said duct, and being responsive to an electrical control signal to switch to a second state in which the source is allowed to increase the air pressure in said duct to deform the flexible feeding element sufiiciently to bring it temporarily into contact with said one face of the stack.

5. Apparatus for selectively feeding documents including a hopper for holding a stack of documents; a continuously rotatable feeding roller; a flexible feeding element carried by the roller; a plurality of rotatable low friction elements effective to support the stack and to maintain that document which forms one face of the stack closely adjacent to, but spaced from, the surface of the feeding element; and feeding control means responsive to an electrical control signal to cause a temporary deformation of the flexible feeding element sufficient to bring it References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 751,284 2/1904 Harris 271-41 6 References Cited by the Applicant UNITED STATES PATENTS 1/1959 Miller.

OTHER REFERENCES Eight Paper Feed Mechanisms, by F. W. Wood, Jr. and V. Hufiines in Product Engineering, March 6, 1961, pages 60 and 61.

2,765,165 10/1956 1011115011 X 10 ROBERT B. REEVES, Primary Examiner.

FOREIGN PATENTS B. 26,081 8/1956 Germany.

M. HENSON WOOD, JR., Examiner.

W. F. MCCARTHY, J. ERLICH. Assistant Examiners. 

1. DOCUMENT FEEDING APPARATUS HAVING A FEEDING ROLLER MOUNTED FOR ROTATION ABOUT AN AXIS, SAID FEEDINGG ROLLER INCLUDING FIRST AND SECOND PARTS WHICH ARE SPACED APART AND ARE RELATIVELY MOVABLE IN AN AXIAL DIRECTION; A SELFSUPPORTING SLEEVE OF FLEXIBLE MATERIAL MOUNTED BETWEEN SAID FIRST AND SECOND PARTS, THE OUTER SURFACE OF THE SLEEVE BEING SUBSTANTIALLY PARALLEL TO AN ADJACENT DOCUMENT FEEDING PATH WHEN THE FIRST AND SECOND PARTS OF THE ROLLER ARE IN A FIRST RELATIVE POSITION; AND SELECTIVELY OPERABLE MEANS FOR MOVING THE FIRST AND SECOND PARTS OF THE ROLLER TO A SECOND RELATIVE POSITION IN WHICH THE SLEEVE IS DEFORMED TO A POSITIION IN WHICH IT ENGAGES WITH THE SURFACE OF A DOCUMENT POSITIONED IN THE FEEDING PATH. 